Where is Palm Valley?
Located just out of Hermannsberg, approximately (120) kms south west of Alice Springs Palm Valley is an oasis set amongst sharp red rock, and its a fun 4x4 track in - bonus. You know I love fun 4x4 tracks!
Links to information about the location:
What the guides have to say:
The following text is an extract from Northern Territory info: Palm Valley
"Remote Finke Gorge National Park is home to ancient landscapes and Aboriginal cultural sites. Accessible only by four-wheel drive, it’s a handy 140km day trip from Alice Springs, or a great place to break your four-wheel drive trip to Uluru.
The Finke Gorge National Park is an important wilderness reserve that protects the Finke River, which dates back 350 million years and is believed to be one of the oldest rivers in the world.
Ancient valley of the palms
The park is best known for Palm Valley, which shelters groves of rare red cabbage palms – botanic remnants from millions of years ago, when Central Australia was lush with tropical forests. Here you’ll see a diverse range of plant species, including tall palms and cycads, many of which are unique to the area...."
My experience of Palm Valley.
On a Sunday in late May there were quite a few camper trailers at the camp ground. Beyond that the trail becomes fun fun fun for 4x4 driving and not suitable for towing. Some lovely little technical sections to the trail and evidence that some drivers have not taken the correct line is shown by the sump marks they have left behind on a few of the rocks.
The 4x4 track ends at the Cycad Valley (Palm Valley) which is really gorgeous as these pics will show. It felt like we were transported to some lost valley.
The tenacity of the trees to find a place to grow amongst the rocks is very impressive!
This little video shows some of the 4x4 trail and part of one of the walking trails, enjoy.
An unexpected visitor to our campsite
After walking the trails in the valley it was time to find a camp spot for the night, but the local camp ground, but as it was too full....
Driving on back down the trail we found a lovely bush camping spot, and what a GREAT decision that was !
Peaceful spot on river sand set back from the road and best of all, we were visited by a very handsome Dingo.
Yes, that is a dingo in the pic with Lulu the Landy.
This handsome bloke came into our camp site, but never 'bothered' us at all, despite it's lean frame indicating it was hungry.
All the information I have read so far about Dingo say they are lean and not to feed them, but this bloke was in my opinion beyond lean, he was starving.
I really wanted to help him in some way, but knew I could not interfere without risking unintentionally 'training' him to bother campers for food and risk him being destroyed by park rangers as a result.
Very hard to watch and do nothing, but also very very precious to have this encounter.
The scenery in this area epitomises iconic Australian image of red rocks, eucalyptus trees set under a bright blue sky. There a several formal walking trails in the Palm Valley area, but there were also so many other areas along the track which enticed me to stop and explore! I can imagine heading off into the rocks, scrambling up and over, exploring exploring exploring. with my satellite navigation to help me find my way. I hope you get the chance to visit this beautiful oasis too.
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